1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a shield case to be mounted on a circuit board, a receptacle connector including the shield case, and an electronic equipment including the receptacle connector.
2. Background Art
A conventional receptacle connector of this type has a shield case as disclosed in paragraph 0024 and FIGS. 1 and 4 of Patent Literature 1 for the purpose of reducing the mounting height. More particularly, a bottom plate of the shield case having a generally O shape in front view is directly placed on a circuit board and is fixed onto the circuit board by engaging locking pieces of the shield case with locking holes of the circuit board. The locking pieces are formed by cutting out portions of the bottom plate of the shield case, resulting in holes formed in the cut-out portions of the bottom plate. The locking pieces also function as ground terminals in connecting the shield case to the circuit board by soldering. A problem with the conventional connector is that solder or flux enters the shield case through the holes when soldering the locking pieces to the circuit board, so that solder coagulates inside the shield case and hinders insertion of a plug into the shield case, or that the flux adheres to some receptacle contacts and thereby causes connection failure of the receptacle contacts with plug contacts.
The above problem may be solved in other conventional receptacle connectors such as ones disclosed in Patent Literatures 2 and 3. Particularly, the shield case has a body containing portion that contains a body of the connector, a pair of folded-back portions that is provided on front or back surfaces of end portions of the body containing portion and is folded back backward or forward, a pair of side walls that is provided continuously from the folded-back portions, and locking pieces extending downward from the side walls. In the shield case with the locking pieces provided in the side walls continuing from the folded-back portions, the bottom plate of the body containing portion have no holes that allow solder and flux to enter the body containing portion.